Good News for All

Is the message of the Bible dependably true ?

When we discuss truth we need to understand that there are differences of kind in truth. One sort of truth, that which we tend to focus on most of all, is objective truth. This is the sort of truth we seek in science and in law. There is another sort of truth that we learn subjectively about how our social world works, often from stories. Jesus taught in this way using parables. I think most of us would presume that when he told about the prodigal son it was to make a point about parental love, mercy and grace, and did not imply that the events of the story were historically true to fact. Nevertheless, it was truth.

Much of the truth we think we know as truth is only partly true. History is written by the historians who survive on testimony of the records and witnesses that survive, and depending on the quality of those historians, records and witnesses the account may be anything from reasonably accurate in a general sort of way to pure propaganda. Psychologists know we even do this with our own memories, improving little things with each recall to suit our preferences. Discuss experiences you have in common with others and you will likely find they remember some things rather differently.

For absolute truth you need to hear what God says about things. Some people claim the Bible represents God's point of view, and even that the Bible itself presents that claim. If that is true then the Bible ought to be a dependable source on many, if not most or all topics. Is there evidence for this claim, and if so, what is it?

Prophecy as Proof

There are numerous books purporting to tell the future. People purport to be able to do this supernaturally, while others attempt to extrapolate current knowledge to make predictions. The success rate is abysmal. The Bible is unique for its astonishing number of fulfilled prophecies and their surprising accuracy. What are these prophecies?

There are quite a lot of prophecies that have an historical fulfillment within the same time period as the biblical writings, which is understandable when you consider that the Bible is a compendium of all available material on certain subjects. For example, the Bible contains the words of the prophets predicting the fall and captivity of both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. It also records the history of those kingdoms, which of course includes the fulfillment of those prophecies along, with pointing out certain moral lessons to be learned. Examples of this nature are not very satisfactory as evidence.

There are a few cases where a prophecy appears in the writings of one author, and its fulfillment appears in the writings of another. This is a little better since the scrolls would have been separately written and for the most part separately maintained, but opportunity for collusion and changes mean these are still far from being satisfactory. There are also a few cases where a prophecy appears in the Bible but its fulfillment appears at a later time and only in secular history. Though doubters would maintain that the prophecy could be a later insertion after the fact, or that the entire work may be from after the events it purports to predict, a few of these are worth mentioning so you can form your own opinion.

There are numerous prophecies about the Messiah that appear in the Old Testament with a fulfillment pointed out in the life of Jesus in the much later authored New Testament. If the Bible is a divinely inspired work that focuses on God's redemptive plan of salvation, this would be an expected outcome. There would also be no possibility at all of collusion due to the extreme separation in time between prophecy and fulfillment. Skeptics point out that Jesus may have manipulated events to bring about fulfillments, or that his followers may have created false narrative to support their beliefs and message that incorporated fulfillments that did not in fact occur. This could conceivably be true about the gospels, but later New Testament writers continued to disclose new prophetic connections and write about them in the Bible. Furthermore, Bible scholars over the years found other unexpected prophetic connections, and continue to discover and write about more even today. Confirmation bias is a real thing. When you can make your own rules of discovery it is possible to produce some very strange connections. We will therefore restrict ourselves to some very obvious and outstanding examples of fulfilled prophecy of this category.

Tyre

There are only a few instances of secular history in advance found in scripture. They all seem to relate to events in the interval between the Testaments, specifically to the conquest of Alexander the Great and to events in the history of his divided empire that follows. The simplest to understand is the prophecy of the destruction of the city of Tyre.

The port of Tyre was built on an island off the coast of Lebanon. It was part of a loose association of seagoing traders who were culturally connected with Carthage. This island port and its heavily fortified shore side city facilities were considered an impregnable fortress in the 6^th century BCE. Through the prophet Ezekiel (ca. 550BCE Ezekiel 26:1-14,19-21) God predicted that Tyre would be destroyed. It would be razed to the ground and its stones thrown into the water. It would be left desolate and become known as a place for fishermen to spread their nets.

This actually happened somewhat over 200 years later as Alexander the Great rampaged through the area with his army. After overwhelming the city on the shore and finding the island port unwilling to surrender, Alexander tore down the city to use its material in constructing a causeway to the island over which he could march his army. As a result Tyre was conquered and left desolate. Fishermen still spread nets to dry at the side of the causeway.

You may find this article by Kyle Butt MDiv of interest for further elaboration on the subjectof Tyre.

Life of Jesus

There are numerous events in the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels which hark back to Old Testament predictions. Such things as his birth in Bethlehem, early childhood in Egypt and association with John the Baptist. His ministry of teaching and miracles, details of his crucifixion, death and burial. His resurrection and ascension to heaven are also prophesied, along with an as yet future return to judge the world. In all there are about 1800 Messianic prophecies. About 300 of these are identified as being fulfilled in the recorded life of Jesus, 40 of them being related to the few days in which he died and rose again, and the remainder are presumed to be in reference to events surrounding his future return.

This is an entirely expected pattern of prophecy and fulfillment if we consider the Bible to be a book planned by God about his intentions for the redemption of the human race centered on his chosen Messiah. The probability of all of these prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one person at any time in history is vanishingly small, less likely than randomly and correctly selecting the one and only marked card out of a stack of otherwise identical playing cards reaching from here to the moon. Prophecies and their fulfillments are not restricted to the Gospel writers, but have been exposed in the writings of Paul, James and Peter. Later scholars continue to discover such connections. Some of the more notable ones relate to the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Levitical offerings, and the Feasts of the Lord.

The Feasts

A close examination of the events surrounding the spring feasts of Israel turns up some astonishing parallels with Jesus as Messiah that even the New Testament authors did not fully discover.

• Jesus is identified as our Passover and as the Lamb of God. The representative Passover lamb was selected from the flocks near Bethlehem and carried on the shoulders of a designated priest over the causeway from the Mount of Olives and in through the north gate of the Temple on the 10^th of Nisan to be presented there on display over the next four days for public examination. Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, entered the Temple enclosure, being carried on the shoulders of a donkey over the same route on the 10^th of Nisan in 30CE. There at the Temple he was challenged and examined by the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees over a period of several days, without any fault in his teaching being publicly exposed.
• The passover lamb was to be killed at sunset on the 14^th of Nisan, then roasted, and eaten after dark that evening in memory of the sacrifice that ensured the survival of the firstborn of Israel at the time of the Exodus. Jesus repeatedly referred to a three day period in which he would be betrayed, taken by the authorities, killed by crucifixion, buried and rise again from the dead. These things happened as predicted over the three day period from when the betrayal was set up by Judas on the morning of Nisan 14 to the resurrection just before daybreak on Nisan 17. Jesus used the Passover meal on the night of Nisan 15 to dedicate the broken passover afikomen matzo and the third cup of redemption as memorials of his blood and body about to be sacrficed for the redemption of all who would believe in him as Messiah.
• The daily sacrifices of a lamb as a burnt offering for the nation of Israel took place at 9am and 3pm, the times at which the Gospel record shows Jesus was crucified and later died on the cross. John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God in recognition of this offering that maintained a daily and continually renewed connection between God and his choen people.
• On the 15^th of Nisan these two offerings of the morning and evening lambs demarcated the period during which all of the Passover festal peace offerings were presented. The peace offering was the only offering divided at the altar and shared three ways by the offeror, the priest who carried out the offering, and God (through the portion on the altar). The peace offering is representative of the Christian communion and speaks of the redemptive peace established by sacrifice that brings fellowship between God and his chosen people through his Messiah.
• The weekly Shabbat was a day of rest in which no work was to be done. It represented a death to the normal activities and concerns of daily living, a time dedicated to fellowship with God. Jesus rested in the grave during this time, having ceased from all of his works. We are encouraged to imitate this in dying to ourselves, and finding our fulfillment in fellowship with God and living for him.
• Jesus rose from the dead on the morning of Nisan 17, 30 CE, the day after the first weekly Shabbat of the Passover. This was the day designated for a perfect sheaf of the barley harvest to be presented as a wave offering before God. This sheaf was representative the firstfruits of the harvest about to begin, and symbolic of Jesus, the firstfruits from the dead, and the firstfruits of those who would believe in him. That day the characteristic Christian message of resurrection began its spread to bring forth a harvest out of all the world.
• The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place for seven days beginning with the end of Nisan 14 at sunset. The Passover meal served with matzos represented the beginning of a new life untainted by the presence of leaven. Leaven was symbolic of the sin and pride that inflates and puffs up with vanity. Every leavened loaf was produced by using leaven grown from some carried over from the making of a prior loaf. Eliminating leaven is symbolic of eliminating the contamination of the old life of sin, the complete renunciation of the past in repentance, that leads to a new life energised by the presence and provision of God in what would otherwise be a wilderness. In a spiritual reprise of the Exodus, beginning with repentance and faith in God's Messiah, our lives are like a Feast of Unleavened Bread sustained by God's provision in the wilderness of this world. We journey toward an eternal inheritance, sustained by the Mannah of our Messiah and water from the Rock of our salvation, and without leaven.
• In the book of Acts we learn that exactly 50 days after the resurrection the promise of the Father, the Spirit of God, came down from heaven to fill the first believers in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is described as the 'law of God, written on our hearts' and this happened on the same day that is attributed in Judaism to the giving of the law on stone tablets at Sinai. As a result, thousands died at Sinai through breaking the law. Thousands came alive by faith in the Messiah on the corresponding day of Pentecost when they chose to obey the new law written in their hearts by faith.

None of these prophetic illustrations relating to Jesus as Messiah were described by New Testament writers. They were all hidden in the Bible, confirmed by the historical record in combination with Jewish culture and traditional practice, some recorded in posterity and some still practiced to this day. These fulfilled prophecies were later discovered by students of scripture and published long after the completion of the Bible. The dated events described took place exactly on the days allocated for them more than 1,000 years before in the writings of Moses. These are only a few of hundreds of other similar discoveries. They are utterly convincing that the Bible is a more than human work, bearing in its prophecies the mark of divine inspriation.

Unfulfilled Prophecy

Along with the Messianic prophecies that connect with fulfillments in the life of Jesus there are many more Messianic prophecies which do not have a fulfillment. Owing to the nature of these prophecies they are believed to relate to the promised return of the Messiah in judgement.

No one from the time of Jesus knew how to connect the Old Testament prophecies of the Messsiah with Jesus. Many of the prophecies were known to be Messianic, but preconceptions about their meaning and possible fulfillments tended to prevent them being associated with Jesus. After the fact, people began to understand that prophecies had been fulfilled in unexpected ways by recent events. The numerous unfulfilled prophecies have engendered many imaginative predictions about Jesus returning. They are likely to be as wrong as the ideas held by Jewish teachers before his first visit, and we will probably be as surprised and amazed by their fulfillment as were the early disciples of Jesus.

Frequency of Messianic Prophecy

In all there are over 300 recognised Messianic prophecies that relate in some manner to Jesus. Approximately 40 of these relate specifically to the three days of his death, burial and resurrection. In addition there are more than 1,500 other prophecies believed to relate to an expected future return of Jesus. There are so many such prophecies and so widely distributed throughout the Bible, that for those who know how to look, some kind of Messianic reference can be found on the two pages before you no matter where you open your Bible.

There is no other comparable work in existence. Antiquity speaks of other reliable prophetic sources, but they no longer exist for verification, if they ever did. Nothing available from ancient or modern times has been successful at predicting the future, and it is normal for most such predictions, where verification was even possible, to be false. In addition to amazing fulfilled prophecies, the Bible contains many predictions of the future that are as yet unfulfilled, some quite mysterious, and so far no predictions that have proven false. It is hard to overstate how unusual this is.

In Conclusion

It is plainly demonstrated by history, both ancient and modern, that no one can predict the future with any success. By contrast, the Bible appears amazingly accurate in its predictions. Some of these can be obscure, vague, open to interpretation or potentially susceptible to collusion. However, a great many are notably specific and convincing. That their fulfillment should all converge on the life of one person is beyond coincidence. This implies an agency behind the biblical writings that is far superior to anything human.

Jews at the time of Jesus believed their scriptures to be inspired by God, and Christians today are inclined to a similar opinion. There are degrees of confidence in this inspiration. Some consider their favourite translation inspired. Others believe that every word of the original writings was inspired. Of these, some maintain that the transmission of the original writings to us has been divinely guided for the preservation of that inspiration. Others believe the overall content and message to be inspired, and that the Bible is therefore authoritative with respect to what it teaches, though it may not be accurate in every detail through human errors in passing the message forward to us.

The Bible, being the collection of the best records of its time on Jewish and Christian origins and history, is substantially the main or only source we have on this subject. In the absence of positive proof of any mistake it is reasonable to treat it as the authoritative source.

The Bible could be regarded as the owner's manual for your life. As such it would make sense to read it to find out what it has to say. It would also be well to believe what it says, if not necessarily what other people say it says. The Bible is meant to help you better your life by its application: it is not a weapon to be used for managing other people's lives. God just offers the information and encourages its use. True enough that he says there will be eventual penalties for ignoring it, but he does not force people to do what he says, and he has not given us that job either.